


Lesson

by micehell



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, TOKIO
Genre: Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-25
Updated: 2012-04-25
Packaged: 2017-11-10 16:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/468213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micehell/pseuds/micehell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seriously, how did they figure out that none of them minded the being nude in front of each other thing? ;)</p>
<p>There are no pairings in this, but there are allusions to past Gussan/Leader & Gussan/Taichi (casual in both cases), plus there's a hint that Nagase might not be averse to Gussan either.  Since this takes place not long after their debut, Nagase and Mabo are underage, but there's no actual naughtiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lesson

That first night at the Budokan, he learned a lot. It was surprising, really, because it wasn’t like they hadn’t played together before (years worth of backups behind some other group, doing some hand me down song on _Idol On Stage_ , countless rehearsals). But up there on _that_ stage, thousands of girls screaming _their_ names, with music… well, with music they hadn’t really chosen, but that they’d at least put their mark on in some way, it was like Tatsuya had an epiphany. Even though he knew them all like the back of his own hand, it was like he was seeing everything brand new: the way that Nagase wanted to go flat in his upper range, and Mabo tended to speed up when the beat was fast to begin with, and Taichi sometimes clowned around when he hit wrong notes (or maybe he sometimes hit wrong notes because he was clowning around), and how Leader had awesome rhythm when playing his guitar and absolutely none when dancing.

The epiphany was also directed inward, and it was with a bit of a sinking heart that he realized that he had the near universal bassist’s disease, namely being almost invisible a lot of the time. It was partly because he wasn’t as flamboyant as Taichi, a little because his guitar work wasn’t (and shouldn’t be) as flashy as Leader’s, a tiny bit because his personality wasn’t as _look at me_ as Mabo’s, and a large bit because (being neither as young, tall, pretty, or lead singer-ish as Nagase) he tended to get lost in the bassist’s job of keeping the beat for everyone else. But that same inward eye saw how he was drawn out of the invisibility every time that Leader beamed that _isn’t this like a dream come true_ smile at him, or Mabo gave the cymbal an extra loud bang to remind him, or Taichi deliberately missed a note by including him in his clowning, or Nagase came over and pretty much hung off of him, and then he’d remember to move again, to shine again, to take his place on that stage. And that the others always remembered to look out for him… well, that was something he hadn’t needed to learn at all, written in his bones like the beat.

However, that first night _after_ the Budokan, he learned even more.

It was Tatsuya’s fault, really, though at the time he’d just been thinking that the kids deserved to have a beer or two (or maybe five or six, but who was counting) after working so hard. Okay, Nagase was only sixteen and Mabo wasn’t quite eighteen yet, so it was kind of illegal (not to mention Johnny-san would kill him dead if they got caught), but they’d been in their hotel room, no intention of taking it anywhere else, and Tatsuya figured it was his job as a big brother to corrupt the babies.

They’d figured out from the first beer that Nagase had a mild alcohol allergy, his face getting flushed and a little sweaty even though the room was cool. By the second beer, the flush had spread down his neck and it had started to creep down his arms by the fourth one. It was just bad luck (or, really, it was more that for all the dissimilarities of their individual personalities, as far as the ability to tease and make inappropriate comments went, they might as well have been clones) that Taichi happened to wonder exactly how far the flush went _down_ at the same time that Nagase (who, tall as he was, was far too skinny and inexperienced to be anything but a lightweight as far as alcohol was concerned) went from fairly tipsy to outright drunk. Drunk, hot, sweaty, and apparently fully relieved of normal inhibitions, Nagase stripped off his shirt.

This had a dual affect, in that it answered Taichi’s question (red all the way down to his belly button) while at the same time it distracted the rest of them enough that Nagase managed to strip everything else off before anyone thought to stop him. Under normal, not as beer-and-celebration soaked circumstances, one or more of them might have mentioned the nudity in less than complimentary ways, but between Nagase acting like it was perfectly normal to be naked and the rest of them being more than a little tipsy themselves, they just let Nagase and his nudity be.

Except in that maybe Tatsuya looked a little (and Leader and Taichi, though Mabo kept averting his eyes, cheeks red from something other than the alcohol), and maybe wondered a little, too. Because… well, the kid _did_ tend to follow him around like a puppy a lot of the time, and maybe pressed closer on the interview couch than was strictly necessary, so when Nagase had first stripped off, Tatsuya had wondered if maybe this was another (not exactly subtle) bit of flirting, but there didn’t seem to be anything sexual in it (at least if the (amazingly) good view they all had of a certain something was anything to go by). Nagase just looked like Nagase, happy like always, except drunk and flushed and not quite as sweaty anymore.

It went on like that for another beer before Taichi decided that if Nagase was allowed to be naked, then Taichi should be, too. And whereas Nagase stripping had been a surprise, this bit of nudity Tatsuya had been expecting, because 1) Taichi wasn’t exactly shy even when he was sober, 2) Taichi was mature in a lot of ways, but when it came to one of them getting something (even if it was just a glass of water), Taichi tended to revert to a three-year-old’s _me too!_ mentality, and 3) whereas Nagase stripping may or may not have had any sexual overtone, Taichi’s was pretty much certain to in some way (Taichi liking to describe his sexual orientation as anything that didn’t run away). But then all of that was just Taichi, so no one thought much of it.

Except that where their youngest was too skinny, all awkward angles and potential, Taichi was very definitely nicely defined. And not in the least shy about showing it, either, draping himself over Tatsuya (who, though they’d grown out of the friendly helping hand thing they used to do, wasn’t above a drunken grope or two), a shyly blushing (but still fairly pleased) Leader, and a cinder red Mabo. All in all, it made a pretty picture to Tatsuya’s beer- (and perhaps a little lust-) filled mind.

It was pretty much a guarantee, though, that once Taichi was naked, Leader would join in. He’d abandoned the beer fairly early in the evening, switching to whiskey instead, and though he had way more tolerance than Nagase did, he was still just tipsy enough (and far too much of a slut) to let all that nakedness go without joining in. Tatsuya smiled to himself, knowing that while Leader wouldn’t mind if nothing actually came of it, almost always content to take what was offered without placing any demands on it, that Leader still wouldn’t exactly refuse if Tatsuya were to revert to their own friendly helping hand thing (or even just a grope or two). He was pretty sure that Leader would be more than happy to show Taichi that he wasn’t the type to run away… well, except maybe from Mabo, who would likely spontaneously combust before he could do anything, even if he were so inclined.

In fact, it turned out that Mabo was the last holdout. Tatsuya had few enough objections to nudity in the first place, seeing as some of the better moments in life were spent wearing nothing but sweat and a happy smile. Heck, even his clothing tended not to cover all that much, since about half his shirts were sleeveless and a good deal of his pants were actually shorts. Combine that with the six beers he’d downed and it hadn’t taken much convincing before he’d lost the tank top and shorts he’d been wearing.

Not much of any real importance happened after that. They had more beer, Taichi nagged Mabo until he lost his clothes, too (after his eighth beer he even lost his blush), Nagase fell asleep half on Tatsuya’s chest so that every time he breathed out he made a half-smothered raspberry, which sent Leader into a fit of giggles every now and then.

Except that even if none of it was really important, it was still important to them… or something like that, anyway, Tatsuya’s brain too muddled from beer and first concert high (and the way Nagase’s breath kept tickling against his chest) to define it properly. It was just that for all the things he’d learned about his band mates that night (and, really, who would have guessed that Johnny-san would manage to pick out five guys who _all_ turned out to be closet exhibitionists), and for all the things he’d already known about them (or ever would), the thing that he kept learning, over and over again, was how well they _fit_.

All those years as trainees, when Taichi kept getting shuffled from band to band, and Leader and Tatsuya could barely even form one, and Mabo tried so hard (too hard) to shine, and Nagase kept getting tacked on like a last minute thought… none of that mattered. However much any of them might have been screw-ups (or unlikely to debut or whatever label might have gotten stuck to them), and even if Johnny-san really had just thrown them together because they were too talented to let go, but not shiny enough to put out front… none of it mattered at all.

Because they’d played the Budokan. And they’d play it again and again. And maybe Tatsuya would learn something new each time and maybe he wouldn’t, but even as muddled as he was, he knew with utter clarity that each time they did play it, they’d wind up back in a hotel room again, drunk and naked and fitting together as perfectly as if it had always been Johnny-san’s plan.

Beer-fueled exhaustion tugging at his eyes, Tatsuya had just enough time to wonder that if it really _had_ all been part of Johnny-san’s plan, had the illegal drinking and nudity (and somewhat illicit groping) been part of it, too, before he fell asleep.

/story  



End file.
